{"id":9266,"date":"2026-03-25T01:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/9266\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T01:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:48:11","slug":"prosecutor-conceded-lack-of-criminal-evidence-in-fed-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/9266\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor conceded lack of criminal evidence in Fed investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department\u2019s investigation of a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Federal Reserve didn\u2019t find any evidence of a crime, a federal prosecutor privately conceded under questioning by a skeptical judge earlier this month, according to a transcript of the sealed hearing.<\/p>\n

That admission by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Massucco came during a March 3 hearing that was closed to the public, the transcript shows. Eight days later, Chief Judge James Boasberg quashed government subpoenas<\/a> issued to the Federal Reserve, dealing a severe blow to the government\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

In his March 11 ruling, Boasberg said the government had produced \u201cessentially zero evidence\u201d to suspect Fed Chair Jerome Powell of a crime. The judge, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, also described prosecutors\u2019 justification for the subpoenas as \u201cthin and unsubstantiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the earlier hearing, Boasberg asked the prosecutor from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro\u2019s office to specify any evidence of fraud or criminal misconduct related to Powell\u2019s testimony about the renovation project or the construction work itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what false statements did (Powell) make before Congress?\u201d the judge asked Massucco, according to the transcript.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we don\u2019t know is my first answer,\u201d replied Massucco, chief of the criminal division for Pirro\u2019s Washington office. \u201cHowever, there are certain areas that he addressed that caused concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d the judge continued. \u201cAnd then what evidence is there of fraud or criminal misconduct in relation to the renovations?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, we do not know at this time. However, there are 1.2 billion reasons for us to look into it,\u201d Massucco said, referring to the amount of the project\u2019s cost overruns.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post was the first to report<\/a> on the details of the hearing from the transcript.<\/p>\n

The investigation has delayed Senate consideration of Kevin Warsh<\/a>, President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to replace Powell when his term ends May 15. Powell can remain as chair past that date if no replacement has been approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

Massucco said during the sealed hearing that there is no evidence that prosecutors\u2019 motive for the grand jury subpoenas \u201cis anything other than trying to find the truth of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have a right to do that,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Robert Hur, an attorney who represented the Federal Reserve board of governors at the March 3 hearing, said the subpoenas are part of a pressure campaign to support Trump\u2019s push for lower interest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe clearly has very strong political motives to try to get lower interest rates, but because of the safeguards that have been erected by Congress around the Federal Reserve\u2019s independence when it comes to setting monetary policy, he can\u2019t get it,\u201d Hur told the judge.<\/p>\n

Pirro, a former Fox News host who was Trump\u2019s pick to lead the nation\u2019s largest U.S. Attorney\u2019s office, derided Boasberg as an \u201cactivist judge\u201d and claimed he had \u201cneutered the grand jury\u2019s ability to investigate crime.\u201d She vowed to appeal his decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is wrong and it is without legal authority,\u201d she said at a news conference earlier this month.<\/p>\n

A Fed spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The investigation by Pirro\u2019s office centered on brief testimony last June by Powell before the Senate Banking Committee, when he was asked about cost overruns on the Fed\u2019s extensive building renovations. The most recent estimates from the Fed suggest the current estimated cost of $2.5 billion is about $600 million higher than a 2022 estimate of $1.9 billion.<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Boasberg said the Justice Department rejected his offer to let the government submit further evidence against Powell directly to him, so that they wouldn\u2019t have to tip their hand to the Fed or Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court is thus left with no credible reason to think that the Government is investigating suspicious facts as opposed to targeting a disfavored official,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department\u2019s investigation of a $2.5 billion renovation project at the Federal Reserve didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6788,105,112,1783,1790,38,594,2240,50,8,3916,3913,3912,3914,2635,9,67,6789,3915,7,2636,2631,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-9266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-andrew-massucco","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-dc-wire","12":"tag-district-of-columbia","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-economic-policy","15":"tag-federal-reserve-system","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-james-boasberg","19":"tag-jeanine-pirro","20":"tag-jerome-powell","21":"tag-kevin-warsh","22":"tag-legal-proceedings","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-robert-hur","26":"tag-subpoenas","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-trials","29":"tag-u-s-department-of-justice","30":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116287301371445255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}